Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An insane person.
- n. A person who has an excessive enthusiasm or desire for something: a sports maniac.
- n. A person who acts in a wildly irresponsible way: maniacs on the highway.
- adj. Variant of maniacal.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Raving with madness; mad or crazy; insane.
- n. One who raves with madness; a madman.
Wiktionary
- n. An insane person, especially one who suffers from a mania.
- n. A fanatic, a person with an obsession.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Raving with madness; raging with disordered intellect; affected with mania; mad.
- n. A raving lunatic; a madman.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an insane person
- adj. wildly disordered
- n. a person who has an obsession with or excessive enthusiasm for something
Etymologies
- Late Latin maniacus, from Ancient Greek μανιακός (maniakos), adjectival form of μανία (mania, "madness"). (Wiktionary)
- From Late Latin maniacus, maniacal, from Greek maniakos, from maniā, madness; see men-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This maniac is out of control and needs to be stopped.”
“One G Beck screaming like a maniac is one too many for this country to handle.”
“We have an emergency button to press if some maniac is holding us at gunpoint.”
“We have this irrational fear that if we let our precious snowflakes do something by themselves, some maniac is going to grab them and take them to their dungeon.”
“Sorry - no time to run through the “Continuum of Force” when some maniac is right in your face with a weapon as soon as you get out of the van.”
“That maniac is so far removed from reality that we here on planet earth look like ants to him.”
“Random, senseless death at the hands of a deranged, homicidal maniac is a terrible tragedy.”
“I hear indulging in maniac laughter is good for you (in moderation).”
Aww, -someone-’s having a heterosexuality crisis. « Love | Peace | Ohana
“Z. September 13th, 2005 at 1: 03 pm meg_mac says: scary, scary, scary!! and to think this maniac is multiplied by the thousands if not millions. i sure wish john q public would start reading and not let the minister decide for them how to vote.”
“In Tell Me No Secrets (1993), people are inexplicably disappearing from Chicago prosecutor Jess Koster's life And from the shadow of her past, a maniac is stalking her until there is no one Jess can trust.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘maniac’.
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Words that are also movies
Unabashedly stolen from a comment made by courier12.
vertigo, serendipity, casablanca, psycho, jaws, fantasia, stagecoach, network, rocky, giant, platoon, unforgiven and 285 more...
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Ends with C but not with "-ic"
bloc, roc, arc, orc, disc, sac, xebec, havoc, bivouac, sumac, maniac, insomniac and 418 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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the brothers
factotem, extrapolation, antinomy, antenome, pusillanimous, capons, caftan, pejorative, cropper, cowl, perfidious, fichu and 138 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Junk
walrus, fascination, broadway, fickle, downturn, bridge, gargle, rotunda, mesh, fab, shortlife, strumming and 304 more...
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good ones
grumble, fumble, bumble, stumble, crumble, mumble, jumble, humble, bramble, scramble, amble, ramble and 191 more...
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katiad's Words
exquisite, obnoxious, noxious, extravaganza, whirlwind, whirling, wild, spinster, existential, chaos, zephyr, blasphemy and 310 more...
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NTB
chaos, Sagittarius, aether, magic, jester, fool, random, delirium, fire, life, cosmic, riddle and 120 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Gotim
Aries, fire, chaos, destruction, Mars, aggression, bold, competetive, conflict, raw, black, red and 165 more...
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✖ LOCUTIONS
✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖
lambda, coital, HUGO, fuggedaboutit, altrap, Hieroglyphics, Synergy, incarceration, Ethos, Devadasi, distraught, Patrician and 254 more...
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amit4knowledge's list
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bobodod's Words
cultie, screwery, gauge, wanker, truthiness, harangue, mediocre, ragamuffin, elysian, spoonerism, loquacious, apostle and 240 more...
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2007bee-r02
2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee Round 2
query, tendency, danceable, parachute, malignant, brutal, humanely, lyrically, deductible, shindig, gravel, embroidered and 274 more...
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wurds i lyke
bombastic, bon mot, spitfire, portmanteau, occlude, chimera, smitten, enigma, tete-a-tete, assignation, punk-ass, bourgeoisie and 29 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for maniac.
yarb Citation on yodel. Sep 14, 2008